Central Oregon athletic contests cancelled

Twelve local athletic contests were cancelled on Tuesday including the scheduled IMC dual wrestling match between Crook county and Mt. View

On Tuesday, January 8, many of central Oregon's schools were cancelled due to inclement weather. As a result 12 central Oregon high school athletic competitions were either cancelled or postponed. The league wrestling dual meet between Crook County and Mountain View will not be rescheduled. Instead the Cowboys and Cougars will count their matchup today in the Oregon Wrestling Classic as their IMC dual meet. Other schools have had to scramble to find dates to make up games or matches. Crook County Christian/Central Christian had to postpone their scheduled home basketball games against South Wasco County High School. They will now travel to South Wasco County on Tuesday, January 15, and their game originally scheduled for January 29, in Maupin will now be played in Prineville at Crook County Middle School. Different schools and leagues have different policies, both about when games are cancelled, and how they are to be made up. At Crook County High School the rule is simple. "When school is closed no athletic contests will take place," said Crook County High School Athletic Director Casey Waletich. Not only are athletic contests cancelled, so are practices, and the school is closed to non-school activities as well. "All the coaches want to practice, but they understand the safety issue for the kids," Waletich added. "If school is closed it is a safety issue for kids and the school district believes that we should treat every activity the same as a school activity. When our building is shut down it should be closed to everybody." Each school has their own policy, but Waletich noted that from informal talks with the Bend schools that they also automatically cancel athletic events if school is cancelled. The same is not true for all school. Crook County Christian Principal Sue Uptain says that the school currently does not have a written policy, and has generally allowed the traveling team to make a decision about whether or not to compete. Since they rent Crook County School District facilities for home games they will now be following the same policy as Crook County High School. Crook County Christian and Central Christian High Schools participate together in basketball, and on Tuesday, when almost everyone else was closed, Central Christian was still in school and was expecting to play. "It just put me in a little bit of a scramble in getting the bus driver called and all the team members called, and then I wasn't sure that I would be able to get another gym this late in the season," said Uptain. "If we couldn't get a gym time then it would have reverted to another away game. That occurred about four years ago when there were several games snowed out for Crook County Christian and they ended up being forced to play five games on the road in eight days. As far as how the decision is made to cancel school in the first place in the Crook County School District, the transportation supervisor and the superintendent make the decision jointly. "Generally the transportation supervisor drives the roads and determines if they are safe or not and then he confers with the superintendent and they make a decision," said Waletich. "It's all about safety for the kids."